[Laptop] waiting for dhcp without cable

Message

Remenic · Post by **Remenic** » Sun May 30, 2004 9:18 am

Hi,

I have just installed Gentoo on a friends laptop. So far, I have gotten everything working (swsusp2, wlan, pcmcia, usb, sound, xorg-x11, etc.). But one thing that bothers me is the built-in network card.

I have set it up to use dhcp, but when there is no cable plugged in at boot-time, it waits for 5 minutes to continue. Is there a way to skip the whole dhcp thing if there's no cable attached?

The network card is a:

Code: Select all

0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 51)

All works well if there's a cable attachted, but, since it's a laptop, there won't always be a wired network connection.

xces · Post by **xces** » Sun May 30, 2004 10:05 am

Either you use something like ifplugd (which is in portage) or you set the DHCP timeout by hand.
To do this, you have to edit your /etc/conf.d/net.

There should be something like

Code: Select all

iface_eth0="dhcp"
dhcpcd_eth0="-t 5"

The value after '-t' is the time in seconds, that dhcpcd should wait for a lease.

Remenic · Post by **Remenic** » Sun May 30, 2004 2:53 pm

xces wrote:Either you use something like ifplugd (which is in portage) or you set the DHCP timeout by hand.
To do this, you have to edit your /etc/conf.d/net.

There should be something like
Code: Select all
iface_eth0="dhcp"
dhcpcd_eth0="-t 5"
The value after '-t' is the time in seconds, that dhcpcd should wait for a lease.

Hmm, both are not ideal solutions. The second one is better than the first though. I seriously *hate* it when all my connections are brutally brought down when connection is lost for just a few seconds. Especially on wireless connection. It's something I'd expect of a Windows 2000/XP machine, not a Linux machine.

Is there no way to let dhcpcd daemonize the minute its started? I don't see the option list in the man page, but maybe there's another dhcp client that does this? Also, I think I've seen XandrOS machines simply skipping dhcp when the cable was not plugged at boot. Anyone know how they did that?

ynef · Post by **ynef** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:24 pm

Stupid but working solution: add a shell script that will ask the user if he wants to start DHCP or not...

Post by **GurliGebis** » Sun May 30, 2004 8:50 pm

install ifplugd , configure it and add it to the default runlevel, then remove net.eth0 from the default runlevel.
As soon as the cable is inserted, net.eth0 is started, and when the cable is removed, net.eth0 is stoped.
Using this on my own laptop, and it runs lovely.

Remenic · Post by **Remenic** » Mon May 31, 2004 9:01 am

GurliGebis wrote:install ifplugd , configure it and add it to the default runlevel, then remove net.eth0 from the default runlevel.
As soon as the cable is inserted, net.eth0 is started, and when the cable is removed, net.eth0 is stoped.
Using this on my own laptop, and it runs lovely.

I'm sure it runs lovely for you, but I also have a wireless lan card in this laptop. Our school's wlan isn't exactly great, and Windows users often complain about the bad quality. Every now and then their connection completely drops. MSN disconnects, etc. Guess why? It's because Windows though it would be nice to bring the whole interface down when there's no more connection. Even for 2 seconds! There is *no* way I will work for that same behaviour on my laptop.

I'm sure it works great for wired connections though. Is there a way to specify which network cards it has to bring down/up on the fly when a cable is plugged? If I can tell it to leave my wlan card alone, I will try it.

Thanks.

xces · Post by **xces** » Mon May 31, 2004 9:34 am

Remenic wrote:I'm sure it works great for wired connections though. Is there a way to specify which network cards it has to bring down/up on the fly when a cable is plugged? If I can tell it to leave my wlan card alone, I will try it.

Actually you just have to specify the interfaces in /etc/conf.d/ifplugd.

Remenic · Post by **Remenic** » Mon May 31, 2004 8:59 pm

Oh-my-god. ifplugd is totally friggin' SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!

I can specify a timeout for dropping connection! that's like totally what I want!

Thank you all for persuading me to use ifplugd

Post by **GurliGebis** » Mon May 31, 2004 9:24 pm

About the timeout for dhcpcd, xces's tip about dhcpcd_eth0="-t 5" in /etc/conf.d/net should work

Karlo · Post by **Karlo** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:38 am

I emerged ifplugd, but now everytime my lap boots it skips the dhcp procees (even the cable is plugged)

I did the following things

- emerge ifplugd
- rc-update del net.eth0 default
- rc-update add ifplugd default

I have the following lines in /etc/conf.d/ifplugd

INTERFACES="eth0"

ARGS="-f -u0 -d20 -w"

I'm new with gentoo.

thanks

[Laptop] waiting for dhcp without cable

[Laptop] waiting for dhcp without cable

Subject

SWEEEEEET

question